Malaysia cautions S'pore not to take it for granted
Malaysia cautions S'pore not to take it for granted
JOHOR BARU, Malaysia (AP): Amid a worsening row with neighboring Singapore, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cautioned the tiny city-state yesterday not to take peace-loving Malaysia for granted.
"We feel saddened when there is tension between Singapore and Malaysia," Mahathir said in a speech in Johor Baru, which is separated from Singapore by a thin strip of water.
"We try our best to be cordial. We have no ill will against it," he said to thunderous cheers from nearly 10,000 people who had packed an indoor stadium to hear him.
Many in his party have been urging strong action against Singapore, including suspending new bilateral deals. The dispute is over the location of the immigration and customs facility for passengers crossing the Malaysia-Singapore border.
Despite Malaysia's opposition, Singapore relocated its railroad immigration facility last Saturday, causing hardships for several thousand commuters who now have to disembark twice for immigration checks.
Malaysia says it should be allowed to keep its immigration control at the original site because it owns the land under an old treaty.
In 1989, Singapore decided to abandon the joint checkpoint in Tanjong Pagar and move it closer to the actual border, saying this would facilitate checks on drug traffickers, smugglers and illegal immigrants.
"Singapore owns land in Malaysia, but we don't harass them," Mahathir said.
"We are peace-loving but don't take us for granted," he warned Singapore, which depends on Malaysia for more than half the water its citizens use. Some politicians have urged that Malaysia use water as a bargaining tool with Singapore.
"They asked us to get out even though we supply them with water. Please be considerate. We are considerate," Mahathir said.
Singapore has said the dispute over the railroad immigration point should not be related to the water issue. "If they don't sell it to us, they don't have anybody to sell it to," Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry Lee Yock Suan said Monday.
In Singapore, an angry citizen wrote a letter offering his services in case of war.
"As a sovereign nation, we are not to be taken for granted. As an operationally ready NSman (national serviceman), I am prepared to defend and die for Singapore," said the letter from Chang Chern Yuen, a reservist, published in yesterday's Straits Times.
Relations have been rocky in the past, but there is little danger of an armed conflict between the two nations, which were united briefly in 1963.
The experiment failed two years later but Singapore still remains Malaysia's third-largest trade partner and an important gateway into Malaysia. More than 200,000 Malaysians cross over to Singapore each day to work and 27 trains run daily between the two countries.
Yesterday morning a small fire broke out at the Tanjong Pagar station still used by Malaysian customs officials. Singaporean authorities said they could not rule out arson as the cause of the fire.
The small fire in the Tanjong Pagar station bordering the city-state's financial district was put out by the Civil Defense Force about 15 minutes after it was reported yesterday morning, the force said in a statement.
"We are still investigating and therefore not ruling out any possibilities," spokesman Capt. Koh Chin Yee told The Associated Press.
The station was operating normally, with passengers waiting for the next train as the fire was extinguished. No one was evacuated during the fire, the statement added.